The Little Circus
by RosesofthePast
Summary: Journey start! Meet Tamon, our rather air-headed protagonist as she begins her long awaited Pokemon journey—an entire year late! Through foolish mistakes and accidental happenings, Tamon begins to find her place in the world on slow step at a time as she struggles to become the best Poke'thlete in the Johto region and beyond with the help of her circus of misfit Pokemon.


**Author's Note: Thank you for picking my work of all works to read! Please pardon the slow start to the story, as I think it's the best way to start a story like this one. I hope you'll enjoy watching Tamon grow and mature as a Poke'mon trainer~**

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It was very early in the morning, the sun just beginning to rise over the forests and tall grasses that spread out to the east of Cherrygrove City. Tamon could see the sign marking the Eastern exit to the city from where she stood in front of the Poke Mart, but that's not where her purple gaze was fixed. Her eyes were focused on the small plastic card in her hand, which she'd just retrieved from the family's Post Office box right outside the Poke Mart. Down at her feet a green blob-like Pokémon gaze up at her, chewing on some kind of branch it'd found on the ground.

"It finally came!" she cheered excitedly to herself, greedily ogling all the neatly printed data. It was a pinkish colored piece of plastic complete with a rather goofy looking picture of herself, some glittery text in bold letters reading "Kanto-Johto League" and in neat letters near the top, her identification: ID Number 62192; Tamon Little. It'd arrived at the very last minute, so late she'd worried for awhile that it would never arrive. But here it was, her very own trainer ID card bright and shiny new.

With a grin, she went charging into the Poke Mart, beaming at the sleepy man behind the counter. He was still younger than most of the adults in Cherrygrove, but he was beginning to show gray. For as long as Tamon could remember, he'd run the Poke Mart in Cherrygrove, even before her grandparents had moved there to officially retire. When she was much younger she'd only seen the man when her grandfather made brief trips from New Bark to Cherrygrove, but it was now a regular occurrence to drop by for candy or something and chat with the man. Though her boisterous attitude was enough to fill a room, there was a distinct emptiness to a Poke Mart open so early in the morning; other than an older well dressed man in the very back of the store, it was completely empty of customers at that hour.

Though the shopkeeper didn't look up when the automatic door swooshed open the first time to let Tamon in, he did glance up after the second swoosh of the door as the little blob trailed along behind her. Instantly, it tried to eat a wrapper left on the floor, but Tamon quickly thwarted its attempts. She picked up the roly-poly Gulpin and dropped in the counter where she could keep an eye on it; the blond was quite used to dealing with its insatiable appetite. The man smiled wearily at the young blond, not complaining about the Pokémon on the counter, and gave a friendly wave.

"And what brings you two here today? Running errands for your grandmother?" he asked, glancing at the large backpack she wore slung over one shoulder.

"Nope! Errands for me!" she corrected, holding out her ID card to the man, "I want some Poke Balls please!"

"Oh! Finally starting on that journey your grandmother was talking about this time last year?" the man commented, digging around in the stock behind the counter, "Managed not to sleep in this time, I see."

"You don't have to remind me," she groaned, offhandedly gripping the Gulpin by its nubby tail and dragging it away from the pencil pot. The year before she'd managed to beautifully sleep in well past the time she needed to be leaving by. As if that wasn't enough, she also hadn't completed packing and still had some work to finish up for her schooling. Needless to say, her grandparents didn't give her the green light on starting her journey that year. But this year was different: she packed a week before, long since finished her school work, and had gotten up early that morning to make sure she made it there on time. A little too early, but that had become her habit after her first critical failure; never again would she sleep through an important date.

The man turned back to the counter, setting down a plastic case in front of Tamon. It was a simple tote, one color on the top and another on the bottom. There was a little handle that folded down and a clasp on the front, shaped like a seashell. Her older brother had one of these, though his was designed more for boys, and she knew the inside to have deep compartments to sort out your different Poke Balls. He'd never had more than one type, but he'd still labeled each compartment with the type that would go there.

"Here you are: five Poke Balls to start you off and a case to keep them all in on your journey. Ah, and a Repel to get you to the Professor safe and sound. How's that?" he boasted, getting an excited expression from Tamon. Giddily, she extended the pink card towards the cashier only to have it waved away; "Don't worry about the price; it's my present to you. Giving you kids a foundation for your journey is the least I can do."

"Nooooo! Let me pay now that I've got a card!" she whined, finally releasing the blob's tail. Gleefully, it began making its way towards the pencil pot, waddling at a surprisingly fast pace, "I can finally pay for things with my own money!"

The man laughed, grabbing a broom to begin sweeping the store before the bulk of the customers came in, "Come tell me that again when you've actually earned some money on your own!"

"Thank you for the Poke Balls anyways, mister," Tamon responded glumly, packing the items into her backpack haphazardly on top of all her other stuff. Grabbing the blob off the counter, she gave one final wave to the shopkeeper before leaving, her Gulpin triumphantly chewing on a pencil.

She hadn't taken more than a few steps away from the Poke Mart when she heard the sounds of the automatic doors opening again. At first, she just assumed it was the other customer leaving because he was done with his shopping—something that didn't concern her—but as she felt the waft of escaped air conditioning brush against the back of her neck she heard a voice call out to her, "Young lady!"

Turning around Tamon thought for a moment she'd forgotten something, but when she saw the well-dressed old man, who was now standing behind her, there was nothing in his hands. There was, however, a rather fat messenger bag at his side; his purchases, she presumed, completely overlooking the fact that nobody really bought that much all at once. At least not at a small Poke Mart in Cherrygrove.

"Do ya need something, sir?" Tamon asked the man, a slight lilt slipping into her speech.

"Yes, if you don't mind, young lady," the man said, reaching into his bag; spotting Tamon's skeptical expression, he straightened up and offered his hand for a handshake, "Ah, I'm Edward Pelosi, though most people call me Mr. Pokemon."

"Ah!" Tamon exclaimed, suddenly understanding who he was, though her information was somewhat off, "The weird old man who lives in the big house up the road! Everyone said it's haunted cuz the lights go on when no one's home, but Grandma said that's being nosy."

"Ah, that must be—", the man chuckled, seemingly amused with his local reputation, "But maybe it's best to leave it a mystery. I over-heard that you were going on a journey."

"Yup!" Tamon chirped, completely unbothered by his lack of an explanation for the supposed haunting; realizing she'd shaken the man's hand without introducing herself, she made a quick interjection before he continued, "I'm Tamon Little, by the way. But you can just call me Tamon."

"Well Tamon, I have something I'd like to ask you to bring to the Professor, over there in New Bark," the man began, digging around in his bag until he pulled out a carefully bundled lump. Pulling down the corner, he revealed the blanket to hold a smooth Pokemon egg, though Tamon couldn't tell what type it was. What she could tell was the egg was a yellowy-orange color, something like the color of a Raichu, but Raichu didn't come from eggs. Stepping closer, she tried to get a better look at its shell while Mr. Pokémon began to speak again.

"I like to travel across the known and unknown regions of the world looking for rare, exotic Pokemon that no one has ever seen before. I've seen a couple legends in my time—a magnificent dragon in a cave full of ice and a lake spirit, in the flesh—as well as a number of less legendary rare Pokemon. For instance, have you heard of a Pokemon called Togepi?"

Tamon nodded, eyes now fixed on the man instead of the egg in his arms.

"I brought one of those back from far away for the Professor. And a few interesting Pokemon from Unova, which are extremely hard to come by in regions this far removed. There's even Pokemon in regions as near as here that are still difficult to come by, like those starters the Professor hands out. This egg here is one such rare Pokemon."

"That's really cool," Tamon replied, eyes aglow with fascination, "But what do you need from me, Mister?"

"Well you see," the man began, obviously starting in for another long story. But when he saw the way Tamon was bouncing back and forth on her feet, raring to go, he decided to abridge things a bit, "I need to deliver this egg to New Bark, but I'm expecting Professor Oak to drop by soon. And since they are two very busy men with very busy schedules, I can't meet either of them at a different time. So I was wondering if I could entrust this egg to you, since you'll be going to New Bark anyways."

"Like a courier service?" Tamon asked, and the man nodded, "Then count me in! A little extra luggage never hurt nobody!"

"Wonderful! Just be very careful with it and keep it warm," the man cautioned her, waiting a moment for the girl to set down her Gulpin before handing her the egg. He reached back into his pocket, digging around for something, "In compensation—"

"No need!" Tamon called back over her shoulder, already bounding towards the edge of town, "I'll deliver her safe and sound!"

As Tamon ran off towards the Eastern edge of town with the egg tightly clutched in her arms and her Gulpin frantically squiggling along behind her, the old man chuckled out a final remark, "Pretty sure it's a she already, eh?"

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**World Notes: In this canon, League ID cards double as credit cards where you can story money. It's usually hooked to a parent's bank card so they can give money to their children during travel, but isn't always. There's also cash, which one can imagine Tamon used as a child, and bank debit cards that non-trainer adults will use. It's just easier for a trainer to use their ID card, since they can transfer battle prize money easier that way. Most game-play aspects that can't be explained through logic in a real-world situation will be explained away through technology.**


End file.
